Develop Bugs

Buy a new Note 2 or unlock my current one?

I'm currently on att with a note 2 and i've switched to t-mobile and will be recieving a new phone in the mail soon. Should i return it and just flash a t-mobile rom onto my current phone? or should i just sell my att one on craigslist and keep the new t-mobile phone? Any possible loss of features or functionality by sticking with the phone i have?

Keep the tmo one.
It dosent have lte yet, so hang on to att one too I suggest but tmo has added aws band.
Sent from my SGH-T889

prepaidguy9081 said:
Keep the tmo one.
It dosent have lte yet, so hang on to att one too I suggest but tmo has added aws band.
Sent from my SGH-T889
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Click to collapse
I don't understand your answer to the OP.
I'm in the exact same situation as the OP. I'm with AT&T but they just took my unlimited data plan away so I'm probably going to switch to T-Mobile.
Are there any bands that the T-Mobile Note 2 has that can't be unlocked on the AT&T model? According to Wikipedia both AT&T and T-Mobile version of the Note 2 have AWS. I heard that you can enable the high speed bands on AT&T's model to work with T-Mobile. Is taht not true?

rogerbacon50 said:
I don't understand your answer to the OP.
I'm in the exact same situation as the OP. I'm with AT&T but they just took my unlimited data plan away so I'm probably going to switch to T-Mobile.
Are there any bands that the T-Mobile Note 2 has that can't be unlocked on the AT&T model? According to Wikipedia both AT&T and T-Mobile version of the Note 2 have AWS. I heard that you can enable the high speed bands on AT&T's model to work with T-Mobile. Is taht not true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tmo hasnt released the update to let tmo gnotes2 work on their lte network, because its not up and running most places... Possibly only update customers who are in Kansas City.
Not too clear if att gnotes2 with att specific firmware would work on tmo's network. Theoretically it should work, but their might be some radio issues that give u shoddy service. Unlocking phones is illegal now, so idk if u could sim unlock ur phone through att to work for tmo anyways. Might have to go through ebay or something to do so.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using XDA Premium HD app

[Q] Moving S4 from Verizon to iwireless/t-mobile

Hi,
I am thinking about moving my Galaxy S4 and moto RAZR from Verizon wireless to iwireless (a t-mobile affiliate). I understand that I need to unlock my phone but I am unable to find out if I move it to iwireless if I will still have 4G data. The iwireless sales rep said that I will still have voice and 2.5G service but couldn't tell me if I would still have 4G.
I was looking at this table I found on a site explaining how to unlock the phone but I don't know enough about the subject to make an informed decision.
Samsung Galaxy S4
Can someone confirm whether or not my Verizon S4 or RAZR can be unlocked to work with the iwireless/t-mobile 4G network?

sgibbers17 said:
Hi,
I am thinking about moving my Galaxy S4 and moto RAZR from Verizon wireless to iwireless (a t-mobile affiliate). I understand that I need to unlock my phone but I am unable to find out if I move it to iwireless if I will still have 4G data. The iwireless sales rep said that I will still have voice and 2.5G service but couldn't tell me if I would still have 4G.
I was looking at this table I found on a site explaining how to unlock the phone but I don't know enough about the subject to make an informed decision.
Samsung Galaxy S4
Can someone confirm whether or not my Verizon S4 or RAZR can be unlocked to work with the iwireless/t-mobile 4G network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems as though your grasp of the subject is strong enough to know that it might work as you'd like - and it might not. You need to call back and ask to speak to a CSR that actually knows what bands their service works on so they can give you accurate information. That's kind of their job...
Also -
Verizon LTE operates on Band 13 while T-Mob operates on Band 17, both of which carry completely different spectrums; this means no LTE on either of your unlocked phones.There's a slim possibility that you will get intermittent 3G but the most likely scenario is that you will get talk, text and 2G / 2.5G only.

Band 17? My Verizon branded S4 is getting T-Mobile LTE. I'm fairly sure its on band 4.

T-mobile is band 4 which is 1700/2100 mhz. The Verizon s4 is not capable of 1700mhz. But if you are getting 4G it may be because your area is using 2100 mhz. I am specifically moving to iwireless and I was told they use the 1700 mhz band.
Bsliv, how did you unlock you phone?

sgibbers17 said:
Bsliv, how did you unlock you phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many Verizon phones are sim unlocked, so it's most likely unlocked as well

serio22 said:
Many Verizon phones are sim unlocked, so it's most likely unlocked as well
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Click to collapse
Yes, I think all Verizon LTE capable phones are unlocked.
The I545 (Verizon S4) can receive LTE on band 4. T-Mobile serves LTE on band 4. The coincidence works well.

bsliv said:
Yes, I think all Verizon LTE capable phones are unlocked.
The I545 (Verizon S4) supports LTE on band 4. T-Mobile serves LTE on band 4. The coincidence works well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My RAZR MAXX HD definitely wasn't SIM unlocked... For the life of me I couldn't get it to work when I moved to ATT from Verizon... Not even GSM would work.

I just need to get some clarification from you guys. Are your VZW phones bought in the US and being in the US on t-mobile's or iwireless's 4g network. Because after I made the first post I went to the phone unlocking place in my local mall and talked to there techs, they said that the VZW S4 will not get 4g. I have also been doing extensive searches online and keep finding half saying it will work and half saying it won't. I have a feeling that the ones that work are working outside of the US as I found posts saying as such.
I read some where that the razr you had to flash the radio FW to get GSM to work properly.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I got my vzw S4 off craigslist but 99% sure it was purchased in the USA. I'm on T-Mobile's $50/mo plan.
Verizon's LTE phones are sim unlocked due to an agreement with the FCC when vzw purchased some bandwidth.
I think there was an update around 03/2014 that enabled band 4 on the I545. Then had to make some apn changes and tell the modem to use gsm/lte on band 4.
The one quirk I have is it will say "no service" after a reboot and until I make or receive a voice call. Then I get the "T-Mobile" instead of "no service" and things work as they should.

bsliv said:
I got my vzw S4 off craigslist but 99% sure it was purchased in the USA. I'm on T-Mobile's $50/mo plan.
Verizon's LTE phones are sim unlocked due to an agreement with the FCC when vzw purchased some bandwidth.
I think there was an update around 03/2014 that enabled band 4 on the I545. Then had to make some apn changes and tell the modem to use gsm/lte on band 4.
The one quirk I have is it will say "no service" after a reboot and until I make or receive a voice call. Then I get the "T-Mobile" instead of "no service" and things work as they should.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to go to iwireless and have one of the tech put a SIM card in my s4 and razr to give it a try.
The only options I have for the network mode on my s4 is
Global, LTE/CDMA, and GSM/UMTS. Can you post you settings?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I was just at iwireless today and tested my phone with their network and was unable to get it to work. iwireless is a t-mobile affiliate but they do not use 4G LTE in my area. Their system runs on a 3.8G 1700MHz which the VZW S4 does not have. I am told that they will be starting to switch all the 2G radios in the area to 4G LTE later this year, which should work with my VZW S4. So I am just going to have to wait till the end of the year and go back and test it again.

Frankenscript said:
My RAZR MAXX HD definitely wasn't SIM unlocked... For the life of me I couldn't get it to work when I moved to ATT from Verizon... Not even GSM would work.
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Click to collapse
That phone was before VZW bought the band 4 spectrum and cut the deal with the FCC. All VZW LTE phones are SIM unlocked. Any AWS capable VZW phone is SIM unlocked and can use LTE on band 4. The S4 got it with an update last year.
I am probably going to do the $30 plan soon and plan to use my VZW S4. I am not going to port my number right away in case the service in my area sucks (doubtful, live in DFW in dense surburbia).

I went out off town this weekend and went to a t-mobile store and was able to get 4g service after adding the correct APN. But it is too bad that iwireless that is in my area does not use that band yet, they are staring to upgrade to that band later this year. Until then my s4 will only get edge service.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I was able to get H+ on my s4 from Verizon to tmobile by changing the network mode to global and the App to fast.T-mobile.com
Sent from my SM-G900T using XDA Free mobile app

With the announcement of the T Mobile $100 2 line unlimited everything, I'm also interested in bringing my Verizon S4 MDK boot loader phone to T Mobile, but want to do my research first-- is it as simple as signing up for T Mobile and getting one of their SIMs and then-- would I be able to flash any of the ROMs in the S4 T Mobile Dev forum or is the T Mobile S4 a completely different device? Any caveats? Would I have to LokiDoki after the flash? Would I need to flash a T Mobile specific radio too (currently on i545vrufnk1)? Or is that all just overcomplicating things? Would i be able to just adjust the APNs on my current ROM after inserting a T Mobile SIM?
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Quick reply to my post and for anyone else interested-- there's a post here that talks about using a 4.4.2 T-Mobile ROM by Fenny on the a Verizon S4: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=57453019 I've tried it and LTE works great, MMS works properly, phone calls work as well. I'm on the Verizon i545vruamdk bootloader and Verizon i545vrufnk1 radio. The ROM is a T-Mobile m919uvufnb4 by Fenny.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

Will the International Model work fine on AT&T?

I went in to Best Buy and pre-ordered the Note 4 on a 2 year contract. Since it'll most likely be locked down to hell, I'm considering selling it the second I buy it and ordering the international version to buying the TMO version.
Will I have any issues?

I bought the international model from GSM nation with confirmation from them that it would work on att. Nope. It does not have the 700 band and does not get LTE. Sucks. I will be getting the att model this week. My model is SM-N910U. No dice.

Thanks to everyone using different spectrum for LTE, the euro/international models almost never have functional LTE in the States. You should get 21mb HSPA+ which depending on your market may get to 2 to 7mb down on GSM 3G.

i believe this model SM-N910F works with at&t band 17.

Ah man. I guess I should just get the t-mobile version off contract :/

Just cancel your pre-order with BB. That is what I did and then I called TMO and ordered with them.

amtrucker22 said:
Just cancel your pre-order with BB. That is what I did and then I called TMO and ordered with them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm considering that. Even considering dropping ATT and getting the $50 TMO plan.

silentecho13 said:
I'm considering that. Even considering dropping ATT and getting the $50 TMO plan.
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Click to collapse
I would if their coverage was better where I live. It is just not that good here

Yup, I feel you.
Luckily, T-Mobile is great in my area. Coverage is perfect. However, I travel to the middle of nowhere in PA often. Won't get reception there :/

daraj said:
i believe this model SM-N910F works with at&t band 17.
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Click to collapse
Anyone confirm if this works yet, thinking of picking this up, saw it for sale on Amazon for 899.

rohankb said:
Anyone confirm if this works yet, thinking of picking this up, saw it for sale on Amazon for 899.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're much better off getting the T-Mobile version. It's cheaper @ $750, readily available, and fully compatible. It even automatically adds the at&t apn when you put in the at&t SIM card.

I just ordered the AT&T model after having the international unlocked models of the S1, S2, S3, Note 1 and Note 2. All of them were only able to get HSPA+ for data, but they all worked fine otherwise. For that reason I have the AT&T model coming to experience LTE for the first time.
If I had known the T-Mobile version works on AT&T I would have gotten that since I am a fan of rooting. No dice for AT&T model yet, but I have high hopes someone will crack it soon.

My straight talk signal runs off AT&T....so i can use lte off the t-mobile device with no problems at all??
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using XDA Free mobile app

Tmobile Variant work with ATT all bands?

Hello All-
My Tmobile 6 Edge will be arriving tomorrow- Just curious if I ever decided to switch to ATT would the phone be able to take advantage of all the bands with ATT? Or would I be missing out on a couple?
Thank you for letting me know!
Scoob

scooby-snack said:
Hello All-
My Tmobile 6 Edge will be arriving tomorrow- Just curious if I ever decided to switch to ATT would the phone be able to take advantage of all the bands with ATT? Or would I be missing out on a couple?
Thank you for letting me know!
Scoob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-Mobile Galaxy S6 Edge will fully operate with AT&T services.

LTE-X said:
T-Mobile Galaxy S6 Edge will fully operate with AT&T services.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only if we can unlock it

Right now it's unlockable. At least through my efforts.

mehdi_s82 said:
Only if we can unlock it
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Click to collapse
Buy off-contract from T-Mobile and ask them to unlock it for you. I never had a problem doing that.

Itaintrite said:
Buy off-contract from T-Mobile and ask them to unlock it for you. I never had a problem doing that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what most of us have done. I paid my device in full and they refuse to unlock it until I have been a T-mobile customer for 40 days.
OP - the T-Mobile edge lacks support for LTE bands 29 & 30 which you'll only need in a very heavily populated area. In most situations, the T-mobile edge will work great on AT&T.

verks said:
Right now it's unlockable. At least through my efforts.
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Click to collapse
Is that a typo verks? Did you get it unlocked?

Goronok said:
Thats what most of us have done. I paid my device in full and they refuse to unlock it until I have been a T-mobile customer for 40 days.
OP - the T-Mobile edge lacks support for LTE bands 29 & 30 which you'll only need in a very heavily populated area. In most situations, the T-mobile edge will work great on AT&T.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ask a friend who's been a T-Mobile customer for 40+ days to do it for you I did that with my sister's Note 4. Just had to use the phone for a day or two for it to register to the network.

Itaintrite said:
Ask a friend who's been a T-Mobile customer for 40+ days to do it for you I did that with my sister's Note 4. Just had to use the phone for a day or two for it to register to the network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue is that T-Mobile doesn't seem to know HOW to Unlock their own phone. At least that's what they're telling me. Supposedly, they may not have the instructions until after the 10th when the phone officially launches.

greyhulk said:
The issue is that T-Mobile doesn't seem to know HOW to Unlock their own phone. At least that's what they're telling me. Supposedly, they may not have the instructions until after the 10th when the phone officially launches.
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Click to collapse
I unlocked my phone by using the pre-installed app which, after I hit unlock, claimed the device was unlocked and then simply disappeared from my launcher.

walloftext said:
I unlocked my phone by using the pre-installed app which, after I hit unlock, claimed the device was unlocked and then simply disappeared from my launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How long have you had tmobile for?
---------- Post added at 02:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:16 AM ----------
Itaintrite said:
Ask a friend who's been a T-Mobile customer for 40+ days to do it for you I did that with my sister's Note 4. Just had to use the phone for a day or two for it to register to the network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you used a friend's sim card for 2 days? Did you fully just let them use your phone for 2 days? If I can, I'd rather go this is route than wait another 32 days..

osmosizzz said:
How long have you had tmobile for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been a T-Mobile customer for about 3 years now. The point I was trying to make is that I didn't have to call T-Mobile to unlock the phone.

walloftext said:
I have been a T-Mobile customer for about 3 years now. The point I was trying to make is that I didn't have to call T-Mobile to unlock the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the thing. you have had tmobile for a while so unlocking it isnt an issue. that app checks how long your line has been active. i just activated mine to get the phone. sucks. i may end up switching to tmobile anyways. still deciding..

I want to buy a T-mobile s6 off craigslist (for $600 rather than $670+tax from T-mobile or $700 tonight only for an international version), but these posts are getting me scared. I also have no intention of starting up service with T-mobile. If I find a friend (or a seller) who is a loyal T-mobile customer, would I be able to unlock it in a timely fashion? Also, what specifically would the process be?

It will work on AT&T but the T-Mobile variant has fewer bands available.

The T-Mobile variant will have all bands with the exception of 20, 29, and 30.

done12many2 said:
The T-Mobile variant will have all bands with the exception of 20, 29, and 30.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any idea if those missing bands are important or not?

I'd can't say that they are not important, but they do not account for the bulk of what you'll generally use. My understanding is they are going to be used in future high traffic areas, but my knowledge is pretty limited.
I can tell you that I have no LTE issues with my T-Mobile Note 4 which pulls generally the same speeds as my AT&T S6 edge side by side.

I'm in a bit of a predicament regarding purchasing my two S6 Edges. I've been on my two S4s for two years and got a Best buy protection plan for them which ends next month. Lucky for me the plan junked out and I'm getting two Bestbuy gift cards for the original value of my phones. The thing that sucks is they don't sell T-Mobile phones, or at least the T-Mobile S6 edge. I was leaning towards getting two At&t versions of the phone and unlocking them. However, I am not sure if features like VoLte(Voice over LTE). If I'm not mistaken LTE should work but I'm not to familiar with the At&t Edges frequency bands and Tmobiles network bands. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Kingissa said:
I'm in a bit of a predicament regarding purchasing my two S6 Edges. I've been on my two S4s for two years and got a Best buy protection plan for them which ends next month. Lucky for me the plan junked out and I'm getting two Bestbuy gift cards for the original value of my phones. The thing that sucks is they don't sell T-Mobile phones, or at least the T-Mobile S6 edge. I was leaning towards getting two At&t versions of the phone and unlocking them. However, I am not sure if features like VoLte(Voice over LTE). If I'm not mistaken LTE should work but I'm not to familiar with the At&t Edges frequency bands and Tmobiles network bands. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See attachments for bands supported by both AT&T and T-Mobile variants. If you're asking if both variant support VoLTE, they do.
The AT&T variant appears to covers all T-Mobile LTE bands but does not seem to cover the 1700 band.
Check threads on previous AT&T Galaxy models on T-Mobile.
I wish I could give you better clarity on using an AT&T device on T-Mobiles network, but I just haven't done it. I've only done it the other way around. I can tell you that I have done this for several generations of Galaxy releases and the results in performance has only been subpar on one occasion. I think that was the Note 2 or Note 3. I don't remember which one right now, but the data was just a little slower at times. This isn't what you're trying to do anyways.
I hope that help a little.

International Note 5 N920i on AT&T

Because I hate the idea of having a neutered AT&T Note 5, I bought an international variant (N920i). It appears the LTE bands are all compatible between the two. I will let everyone know how it turns out. If you already have experience with this, let me know.
EDIT: Yes, N920i works without any modification on AT&T

When does it arrive?
Thats very interesting.
from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using XDA Free mobile app

First half of this week hopefully!

Please keep us posted.

@alaskajoel Le us know if you have any signal issues.
The T Mobile S6 Edge on AT&T network gave me some issues. Calls would take 30 seconds to dial out and phone did not ring a bunch.

martinezma99 said:
@alaskajoel Le us know if you have any signal issues.
The T Mobile S6 Edge on AT&T network gave me some issues. Calls would take 30 seconds to dial out and phone did not ring a bunch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do. Should be in my hands tomorrow.

Here goes. N920i 64GB
EDIT:
LTE Working with attnextgenphone APN. Made a few phone calls, received one, and so far no odd problems.

I don't see the LTE on the signal bar are you sure it's on LTE?
---------- Post added at 05:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:48 PM ----------
May I ask where you purchased this version?

eroracing said:
I don't see the LTE on the signal bar are you sure it's on LTE?
---------- Post added at 05:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:48 PM ----------
May I ask where you purchased this version?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LTE showing up on the signal bar is a Domestic device visual. International versions Show E (edge) 3G, H+ (Faux G) and 4G for LTE.
If you are still unconvinced, my service mode presently shows I am on LTE Band 4. Download speeds at 40mbps this evening. No carrier aggregation unfortunately, but I also didn't have it on my Nexus 6 or the GS6.
I purchased the phone from a seller in Hong Kong via Ebay.

Awesome! Enjoy!

Yep, just like the International S6 G920I that supported AT&T LTE
Sent from my SD4930UR using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

This is excellent news. How much did you pay for that bad boy? Please go to dev settings and see if "allow OEM unlock" is in the options. Thank you.

seh6183 said:
This is excellent news. How much did you pay for that bad boy? Please go to dev settings and see if "allow OEM unlock" is in the options. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
~$900 USD. OEM Unlock is an available option in Developer Options.

I thought I'd give this thread a small bump as I'm about to pull the trigger on an international N920I as well.
My question stems from simply being new to importing phones and having to pay attention to bands. I have bene following this thread closely, and it seems as though the N920I performs well on the AT&T network, but is it the same as if I had bought one from AT&T? I ask only because it was just mentioned that this phone does not have Carrier Aggregation.
I'm not certain what carrier aggregation is (I looked it up on google but couldn't find much to answer my question). Does this mean that it will perform more slowly on US networks?
Also a final question, if anyone is willing to answer it. What is the region-locking situation on this phone? I have read mixed reports about people being stuck with phones that they cannot use because it was not activated with a compatible SIM, and some people that say they have had no problem. I don't want to drop $900 on this device and not be able to use it.

Diraan said:
I thought I'd give this thread a small bump as I'm about to pull the trigger on an international N920I as well.
My question stems from simply being new to importing phones and having to pay attention to bands. I have bene following this thread closely, and it seems as though the N920I performs well on the AT&T network, but is it the same as if I had bought one from AT&T? I ask only because it was just mentioned that this phone does not have Carrier Aggregation.
I'm not certain what carrier aggregation is (I looked it up on google but couldn't find much to answer my question). Does this mean that it will perform more slowly on US networks?
Also a final question, if anyone is willing to answer it. What is the region-locking situation on this phone? I have read mixed reports about people being stuck with phones that they cannot use because it was not activated with a compatible SIM, and some people that say they have had no problem. I don't want to drop $900 on this device and not be able to use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My data speeds and reception have been the same as my nexus 6 and girlfriend's GS6 (purchased from AT&T.) Carrier aggregation allows for next generation LTE, but I have yet to own a phone, AT&T branded or otherwise, that supports it in my area. It might just be that there is no support for it in my city, but I'll be in Chicago In a few weeks and will try to investigate it there.
I can't speak to the region locking. All I know is my phone was completely sealed and worked 100% right out of the box with only putting in an AT&T SIM card.

alaskajoel said:
My data speeds and reception have been the same as my nexus 6 and girlfriend's GS6 (purchased from AT&T.) Carrier aggregation allows for next generation LTE, but I have yet to own a phone, AT&T branded or otherwise, that supports it in my area. It might just be that there is no support for it in my city, but I'll be in Chicago In a few weeks and will try to investigate it there.
I can't speak to the region locking. All I know is my phone was completely sealed and worked 100% right out of the box with only putting in an AT&T SIM card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the quick reply. I think I'll put in an order right now.

Samsung Pay
I'm glad to hear that the N920I works on AT&T on the LTE band. I considered getting the International version. However, there is something else that I am concerned about...and that is Samsung Pay that will be coming late September. I believe carriers have to allow (or configure) Samsung Pay to work. For example, Verizon may not be supporting it, at least that's what's traveling around the net. Also when I had the International Galaxy S3 on AT&T, Google Wallet didn't work, it only worked on AT&T versions at that time. Unfortunately, we won't know until Samsung Pay is available, but I wonder if it will work on the N920I?

Awesome news. can you please tell me if VOLTE works on AT&T or if you even had the option for HD calling? Settings should be found under data options.
Thanks in advance.

For those wondering, if you use an N920I on AT&T, there are a few things you should know.
1. Since this is an international model, the signal indicators are different than what we're used to seeing in the US. The SM-N920I shows the following indicators for mobile data:
E - This means you have a 2G/EDGE connection
3G - This means you have a UMTS connection with no HSPA
H+ - This means you have an HSPA+/Faux 4G connection
4G - This means you have an LTE connection
2. Phone calls will not work over LTE (VoLTE), and, by extension, HD Voice doesn't work either. The VoLTE and HD Voice components are proprietary software that is only built into the AT&T-specific ROM on the SM-N920A.
3. The phone DOES support carrier aggregation (otherwise known as LTE-Advanced), but not on AT&T's bands. Considering that the SM-N920I is intended for retail in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, the baseband firmware is tweaked to do carrier aggregation on band pairs that are common among carriers in that part of the world.
So, what does this all mean? If you want a phone that has support for all the bleeding-edge technologies on AT&T's network (VoLTE, HD Voice, LTE-A), then you have no other choice but to buy an AT&T-branded SM-N920A. However, if you want faster updates, no carrier bloat, no carrier branding, an unlockable bootloader, and don't mind sacrificing the whiz-bang stuff on the network side of things, then an SM-N920I will work just fine. Put your SIM card in, you'll get LTE data on all of AT&T's available bands, and you'll be able to make and receive calls over the HSPA+ network. You're just not going to have all the latest carrier-marketed bells and whistles that you'd get if you bought a proper AT&T-branded SM-N920A.
At this point, I *should* rant about how stupid it is that Samsung refuses to sell SIM-free, unlocked versions of their phones via US retail channels. That's what forces us to go through these 3rd party importers to get the international models that aren't really tweaked for the US carriers. Alas, I'm not going to go down that road, though. It's a tempest in a teapot.

oldblue910 said:
1. Since this is an international model, the signal indicators are different than what we're used to seeing in the US. The SM-N920I shows the following indicators for mobile data:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Translation: On the 920i/c, the signal indicators follow the international standard of "4G" being "LTE", and not the AT&T/TMO marketing fiction of "4G" being what everyone else calls "3.5G".
As for the rest of your points, I have to wonder how well deployed VoLTE is on AT&T (and I don't think AT&T has even started LTE-A yet, have they?)
I live in a somewhat rural area, and I'm just thrilled I have LTE.. which beats the "no signal" I get with other carriers. I don't know that I've ever experienced VoLTE. (Then again, I can't remember the last time I actually had a voice conversation with my phone.)
oldblue910 said:
At this point, I *should* rant about how stupid it is that Samsung refuses to sell SIM-free, unlocked versions of their phones via US retail channels. That's what forces us to go through these 3rd party importers to get the international models that aren't really tweaked for the US carriers. Alas, I'm not going to go down that road, though. It's a tempest in a teapot.
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Oh, but why not?! We really need some more activity in the AT&T Note5 section.